Marked (39 page)

Before
James could react and try to get his other hand into play, the
enforcer grabbed his wrist and threw James into a pile of large metal
pipes. It took a lot to break even the smaller bones in a hybrid
body, but I heard something snap inside of James as he collided, and
I knew he was going to be even more outclassed now than he'd been up
to this point.

I
could still feel blood trickling out of the hole in my leg, and I
knew I'd already lost too much blood, but that all paled against the
fact that James was only seconds from death and with him gone, Alec
and I would be following him within heartbeats.

Somehow
my pistol had made it into my hands without a conscious decision on
my part to pull it out of my waistband. I knew next to nothing about
aiming a gun, so I didn't aim it; I just pointed it in the bigger
hybrid's direction and pulled the trigger.

The
kick as the first bullet left the gun was startling. It wasn't
painful, but between that and the shockwave of sound that washed over
me it felt as though I'd been struck. A tiny part of me tried to drop
the gun, but the cold, in-control persona that had gotten me through
everything that had been thrown at me since Alec had been shot was in
the driver's seat and she calmly pulled the trigger again and again.

My
time sense was as hyped up as it had ever been—I was actually
able to see the path the bullets took through the night sky, a
dull-gray bar of distortion no bigger around than a pencil. It made
it incredibly easy to adjust my aim. The first bullet had missed, but
it had still served a purpose in that it had stopped the enforcer
from going after James. The second bullet took the massive hybrid in
the chest, but after that he started moving towards me and things got
harder.

He
was moving erratically so as to make it harder for me to hit him or
else he would have been on top of me after the third and fourth shots
missed, but then I managed to anticipate where he was going and I
shot him twice more in the chest.

The
enforcer was less than two steps away from me when James crashed into
him from the side, slamming him into the side of the truck with so
much force that the driver's door crumpled like cheap tin. This time
I heard bones break inside of the
enforcer's
body, but that was all just an afterthought. James' claws punched
into the enforcer's chest and a second later the bigger hybrid
dropped bonelessly to the ground in a way that I knew meant he
wouldn't be getting up.

James
ripped the ruined driver's door free of the truck, picked Alec
up—heedless of the damage his claws were doing to Alec's
fragile human flesh—and slid him into the cab of the truck.

"Get
up, Adri, those shots are going to have every cop in the city here
within seconds."

I
slipped my gun into my sling and tried to get to my feet, but my
right leg just wouldn't work. A second later James was there, now in
human form, and I was being tossed into the truck next to Alec.

"Adri,
you're going to have to apply pressure to your leg, if I stop to
bandage you we'll be caught for sure."

I
couldn't get the words I wanted to come out, so I settled for just
nodding. I felt remarkably numb considering what I'd just been
through, but something told me that James' orders were important. I
pushed against the hole in the top of my leg with my one good hand,
but that wasn't going to do anything about the hole in the bottom of
my leg.

I
unexpectedly found my voice and turned back to James. "It's not
stopping—I'm still losing blood out of the bottom of my leg."

"Crap!
You should have said something. Here, stick your hand underneath your
leg and I'll apply pressure from the top."

I
got my hand underneath my leg and then nearly passed out from the
pain as James reached over and pushed down with a good chunk of his
two hundred pounds.

"I'm
sorry, Adri. I know that probably hurts, but you've already lost a
lot of blood and I need to keep enough inside of you that I'll have
enough to work with once we finally get a chance to stop and work on
you."

James
had looked away from the road to check on me, so I was the first to
see the huge, furred figure step out of the shadows and onto the dirt
road in front of us. My gasp brought James around though and he
stepped on the accelerator, obviously intending on running over this
latest member of the Coun'hij kill team.

The
ancient truck leaped forward as the engine roared in protest, and
then we were practically on top of the enforcer. James threw himself
towards me at the last second, trying to make sure that he was out of
the reach of the hybrid, and I realized that he'd never actually
expected to be able to hit the enforcer.

He
was right. The red-furred hybrid spun to one side just before the
truck would have smashed into him, and then slashed at James. I saw
it all happen in painful slow motion. His claws took James in the
leg, tearing through skin and muscle, but even I could tell that it
wouldn't be a lethal injury. I thought for a split second that James'
plan had worked, that we were going to be able to get safely past the
hybrid, and then a jolt of energy surged out of the enforcer's claws.

I
only caught the fringes of the shock, but it was still enough to make
my heart stutter and to force every single one of my muscles to
simultaneously contract as though my body was trying to rip itself
apart. It was much, much worse for James.

The
hand that had been pressing against the top of my thigh shot up and
hit me in the face hard enough that I saw stars, at the same time
that James jerked the wheel to the right. There was a single
crystal-clear second in which things were quiet enough that I heard
James stop breathing, and then we slammed into the side of the
building at more than thirty miles per hour.

The
crunch of broken metal and shattering bones was nothing less than
horrifying. James was ejected from the car just as my torso hit the
dash with enough force that I felt most of my ribs break. Alec hit a
split second later, and the sound made me want to be physically sick,
but I couldn't seem to conjure up the determination required to get
my body working well enough to check on him.

The
seconds leading up to the crash seemed to be seared onto my mind.
We'd hit the building at a shallow angle—in fact, if James had
been able to cut the wheel a little more to the right we would have
gone in through the door we'd just shattered rather than slamming to
a stop against the structural steel that had supported the door's
hinges.

The
image of the door being flung out of our path a split second before
the truck wrapped itself around the large steel support played itself
over and over in my mind. I'd already been in shock from the fight. I
didn't think it was possible to go into double shock, but my mind
felt like it had stripped a gear. It spun over and over again without
ever catching on anything.

The
sound of the truck's passenger door being ripped off of its hinges
brought me back to myself enough that I was able to turn my head and
meet the red hybrid's eyes. They were an inhuman yellow that seemed
to show no remorse for what he was planning on doing. The hybrid
reached towards Alec with claws that gleamed in the faint moonlight.

"Not
so fast."

The
words came a split second before a dark-skinned hand grabbed hold of
the hybrid's wrist and threw him deeper into the darkness of the
building. It all happened so fast that even with my augmented time
sense I was still left confused and struggling to put the pieces
together. I had vague impressions of a clean-shaven head, but that
didn't make any sense. No human could possibly be strong enough to
pick a hybrid up and throw them like that.

Even
a shape shifter in human form or a vampire would have a hard time
casually slinging around that much weight, but the flashes of action
that had stayed with me confirmed that my savior was male and
undeniably human-looking.

Whoever
he was, he turned and shot after the enforcer with a speed that was
every bit as fast as any hybrid I'd ever encountered, and it only
took a moment before he was deep enough into the building that I had
no hope of following the fight other than by the enforcer's growls
and the sound of flesh impacting against metal.

Just
as I started looking down to check on Alec, I saw the first of the
odd, blue flashes of light. At first I thought what I was seeing was
the result of the red hybrid cutting loose with another massive
charge of electricity, but the flashes went on and on. It was still
possible that what I was seeing was the Taser-like power the hybrid
had displayed when he'd incapacitated James, but I was having a hard
time imagining a situation where any living being would be able to
absorb those kinds of repeated shocks and still be able to go on
fighting.

Still,
there was something almost electrical in the hue and cadence of the
light pulses I was watching. It reminded me of the time in Minnesota
when I'd been sent into the shop class with a question for one of the
students from my English teacher. The flickering shadows dancing
across the ground reminded me of watching someone use an arc welder.

It
was the feeling of blood pooling in my shoe that finally made me
realize that I was fixating on stuff that wasn't important. James was
still out of commission, Alec was quite possibly critically injured,
there were police doubtlessly headed in our direction, and if I
didn't force myself to focus, I was going to bleed to death before
anything else could happen.

I
pushed myself back off of the dashboard and a scream tore itself free
of my throat despite my best efforts. Somehow my shock had cushioned
me from the pain of multiple broken ribs, but it wasn't up to the
surge of agony that moving brought on.

Screaming
was an even bigger mistake than I'd expected it to be, it left me
feeling even more light-headed than I'd been a second before and I
suddenly realized that my breathing was shallow and fast. No matter
how hard I tried I couldn't seem to get enough oxygen into my
bloodstream.

It
was now a race to see whether blood loss or asphyxiation did me in
first. It was funny in a bitter, macabre kind of way, but I didn't
have the breath to laugh, so I tried to school myself to
seriousness—it wasn't working until I saw another hybrid step
out of the darkness and approach the truck. I didn't recognize him,
but I knew he was another enforcer. None of our people would have
been able to get there so quickly—even assuming they realized
what was going on.

The
enforcer stepped over James, and headed directly towards Alec and me.
He was less than three feet from the truck when something caused him
to spin around and raise his claws. Despite the pain and the fact
that my vision was starting to go fuzzy, I managed to turn my head
far enough to the side to see what had made the hybrid so skittish.

It
was another human, but one who looked vaguely familiar. Some tiny
part of me must have been hoping against hope for the appearance of
another ally because when I looked back and saw that the enforcer was
now relaxed I felt a surge of disappointment that couldn't be denied.

"What
are you doing here? Nobody told me to expect backup—especially
not you. Don't tell me that you're here to steal the kill. I've
worked hard for this and taking down Graves is the kind of thing that
will make people sit up and take notice."

The
approaching figure, small and frail in comparison to the muscled bulk
of the hybrid just outside of the truck's cab, shook his head.

"Good.
You can slit the girlfriend's throat if you want—that or their
bodyguard is right over there. Plenty of killing still to be had if
that's what you're here for."

I
couldn't feel my right hand anymore, couldn't feel much of anything
from the neck down, but my approaching death had finally thrown
everything into stark clarity. I was amazed at how sensitive my
hearing had gotten. I could hear the fear in the enforcer's voice as
easily as I could see the waning flashes of light still coming from
inside the building.

It
seemed odd to me that the two latest arrivals would be more concerned
with killing me than with helping their comrade in arms, but then
again the Coun'hij's forces had always been more like a group of
professional bullies than a real army.

I
could feel the moment of hesitation as the hybrid tried to come up
with a way of getting to Alec without exposing his back to the man
who had nearly arrived at the truck. Hunger for the kill finally won
out over fear and self-preservation.

The
hybrid sank the tips of his claws in my leg and turned me towards
him. It should have been excruciating, but I still seemed to be dead
from the neck down. I expected him to toss me out of the truck, but
just as his muscles tensed up, the new arrival put his hand on the
hybrid's arm. There wasn't any crackle of electricity or rush of
metaphysical power. There was no reason to think that the simple
gesture was an attack, but the hybrid instantly dropped to the
ground.

The
new arrival stepped up to the cab of the truck and I finally realized
why he'd looked so familiar. It was Oblivion.

I
started to scream as he reached for me, but it didn't do any good and
I was left to wonder whether it would hurt to have my memories torn
out of my mind.

"He
remembers nothing. He's like your friend Jessica."

The
chorus of voices that I heard inside of my mind was exactly as I'd
remembered it from the one and only other time when Oblivion had
touched me. Each word was spoken by a different voice and they ran
together with odd, choppy intervals between them.

"I
don't understand…"